Introduction

The Chinese have been cooking lettuce for as long as they've been flying kites. Dadwould often serve lettuce with oyster sauce in the restaurant and it is one of myfavourite dishes. I've used prawns in my version and, to create a more rounded meal, I've added noodles. This is a very simple dish and I promise you that whomever you serve it to will imagine you've been cooking for years.

Serves 4

Easy

Ingredients

2 tbsp

rice bran oil or vegetable oil

350g

raw king prawns, shelled

3

spring onions, trimmed and chopped into 1cm pieces

2

fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

a 2cm

piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped

4

Little gem lettuces, quartered lengthways

400g

fresh egg noodles

2

tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tbsp

fish sauce

sesame oil, to drizzle

Instructions

Heat half of the oil in a wok over a high heat. When hot, stir-fry the prawns for 2minutes, until just cooked through. Place the cooked prawns on a plate andset aside.

Keeping the wok over a high heat, pour in the remaining tablespoon of oil. Whenhot, add the spring onions, garlic, chillies and ginger. Stir-fry for 1 minute and thenadd the lettuce. Gently mix together and fry for 2 minutes.

Return the prawns to the wok along with the noodles, soy sauce, fish sauce anda little sesame oil. Toss over a high heat until all of the ingredients are well mixedtogether and cooked through.

Forget about serving plates; whack the wok straight on the table and leteveryone dig in.